Eco Start/stop not working

[Gozoman]

My car is a 2013 C180 Blue Efficiency. When I bought it the start/stop function worked fine. Then I had a Blackvue camera system fitted to the car and it stopped working. It did actually cut in the other day, by that I mean the Eco symbol on the dash changed from yellow to green and the engine cut out when I stopped at lights. I did have a battery issue after coming back from holiday. The car had been in the driveway for about 3 weeks and the battery had run down. I removed the battery and connected it up to my Optimate 6 charger and at the end of the process it would only reach yellow which on that charger denotes an internal fault. So I bought a new AGM battery and after checking it on the charger fitted it to the car. Just for good measure I also bought and fitted a new AGM auxillary battery. The auxillary battery I removed was put on the charger and took a full charge so it will do as a spare. Could the camera system be putting a drain on the battery and preventing the start/stop from operating? I do mostly short journeys and some have suggested engine temperature could be the problem whilst others say no because theirs works as soon as they set off. Just wondering if anyone has had a similar problem.

 

[Gazwould]

It's not a problem , it's a bonus .

 

[Petrol Pete]

I agree with Gaz ^^^ It's your lucky day.

 

[Gazwould]

Wish there was a fuse you could just pull .

 

[Gazwould]

Looks like there is

A 7.5A in front of the auxiliary .

Now I would imagine best to pull after 10 mins of boot open for any monitoring to be off and would need a quick charge given it's size now and then for it not to die .

 

[esscee]

It saves having to turn it off once the engine is running!

 

[barian]

Whether you want the function or not, the fact that the stop/start is not working suggests there is something wrong. It does seem odd that it stopped working after you installed the camera system and this suggests that it might be causing a current drain sufficient to reduce the charge state of the battery and prevent the stop/start cutting in. Perhaps one way of checking this would be to disconnect it, make sure the batteries are full charged and take the car for a decent run. There are quite a number of conditions that need to be met for the stop/start to cut in, and if you are doing only short runs - particularly in winter - this could be the explanation.

 

[CJD]

As others have said, there are a lot of parameters that have to be met for the stop/start function to work - especially during the winter months.
For mine to change to green during a cold spell, I generally have to turn off the A/C and it changes to green pretty quickly.
I suspect that the Blackvue is drawing extra current, which is discharging your battery more than you are normally used to, and stopping the stop/start working like it usually does.

 

[richard]

Does the blackvue run with the ignition off ? If so did you install a power magic, or have they just wired it to the permanent power - if the latter it will just run the battery down.
Stop/Start wont go green if the battery charge rate is too high (i.e it is a bit flat, for instance because the dashcam ran for a while while engine not running.